Toolz: How I was misdiagnosed, almost operated

Radio personality, Tolu Oniru-Demuren popularly known as Toolz, has opened up on a bad experience she had recently while she sought medical attention in a Nigerian hospital. It is a story that touches on the inefficiency and little value for lives pervasive in the nation’s healthcare system.
But for her sister who had a medical background, Toolz would have gone under the knife in one of the nation’s hospitals for no reason. According to her, she was almost operated for wrong reasons but for her sister.
She related her experience to The Point at the launch of a new video by the ONE campaign, titled, “I AM IN …to make Naija Stronger” at Four Points by Sheraton Lagos Hotel.
Along with other top celebrities such as Waje, Desmond Elliot and Ali Nuhu, she called on the government to invest in the health sector as stipulated in the National Health Act (2014) and keep its commitment to the 2001 African Union’s Abuja Commitment.
According Toolz, who got married to a pilot, Tunde Demuren earlier this year in Dubai, her personal experience taught her that when it comes to healthcare in Nigeria, it is between the person and God.
The gorgeous lady said, “I was very ill and I managed to get myself home. Everyone was worried and I could barely speak because I was in so much pain. The next day, my sister who had a medical background decided to take me to the hospital.
“To cut the long story short, we got to this hospital and I was misdiagnosed. It was so bad that they were ready to do surgery on the wrong thing. I was lying there in pain and my sister came to ask what was going on. They told her they wanted to operate me for what they felt might be wrong.
She said ‘do not touch her.’ I know this happens to a lot of people.” She lamented that she would have been operated on for something else and might not be alive today, but for her sister. “I was just lucky enough to have someone who knew the right thing. A lot of people go to the hospital, they just give them mediocre treatment and they die. That shouldn’t happen and it is very important for our government to take healthcare serious,” she said.
Today, perhaps because of her experience, Toolz is passionate about healthcare education and believes that having good healthcare is extremely important to Nigerians.
Toolz said, “We heard situations where people had car accidents and they needed emergency care, but they did not get it because they had no money or so. It is very important that this act (2014 National Health Act) is implemented because it makes it a criminal offence for people to do that. “A minister, his wife and son died because they had a car accident in a very remote area in Nigeria. By the time they got to the hospital, the equipment they had was substandard. We hear different stories all the time. We hear about people suffering from asthma and they did not have oxygen in the hospital when they were rushed there. Why won’t you have oxygen in the hospital?”
She, however, feels bitter when people tell her she has no right to talk about poor healthcare since she is rich. To her, it is the most ridiculous thing she has heard because “the richest man can have a car accident and if he is not given good medical care, he cannot even get to Germany or Italy or wherever he needs to go.”
“So, this is something that affects every single person. If not directly, you have family members and friends who might fall victim of our bad healthcare,” she said.